Friday, March 31, 2017

Carroll Wayne Watts said he had a close encounter with a UFO the night of March 31, 1967, but it was not reported until the following day, on April 1. Watts lived in the tiny town of Loco, in the Texas Panhandle, just south of Wellington, about 100 miles east of Amarillo. His story was carried in United Press International news service, UPI, and published March 2, as reprinted below.

Loco, Texas, near the Oklahoma border.

Saucer Speaks

A Wellington farmer said today that he spoke to a flying saucer last night. The man, Carroll Watts, said he was returning home from his father`s residence about a mile north of his home at about 10:30 Friday night when he saw a light from about where an abandoned house stands.

He turned off the dirt road and headed toward the light. He said he drove to within about 20 feet of an object which “appeared to be about 100 feet long and eight or ten feet high.”

"I walked around the side of it, and about 20 feet down the side l Found a port or door. l knocked on it three or four times and it opened mechanically,” he said.

”A VOICE began speaking to me- it was an unemotional voice neither masculine nor feminine. lt asked me if I would be willing to submit lo a rigorous physical examination.

“I asked them why I would want to take a physical and they told me that if I passed it, l would be able to make a flight with them. They said any man who passed the physical could make a flight, but no women or children would be taken.

“They pointed out a machine against the opposite wall from where I was standing Outside the door. They said all I had to do was stand before the machine to take a physical.”

"About two or three feel forward from the machine was a map. lt was about a yard square and began about a foot from the floor. lt appeared to be a large-scale land map-but I couldn’t tell what it was a map of. “

“Then they informed me that they had a machine that, when the ship within 300 yards of a building, could tell how many people were in the building and their ages.

"They (the voice) then asked me again to take the physical--and when l declined, they told me that several people had taken the test and had made the flights.

“They, whoever they were, said they were stationed all over the world and could come and go as they pleased-no one could stop them.

“l told them l didn’t want to take that physical and I got back in my car and turned the lights on the ship.

“As I pulled in front of it, it rose slightly and turned to the south. There was a light, about 20 inches across, on the of the nose. As the ship was sitting, it gave off a clear fluorescent light, but when the ship began to move, the light took on a reddish cast.

“As I drove off, the object lifted from the ground and took a heading to the south. It made no noise whatsoever. l guess the whole thing lasted about ten to 15 minutes.”

Project Blue Book file card "Psychological"

As he spoke to UPI by telephone, Watts had two Air Force investigators at his home. The investigators were sent to Wellington from Altus Air Force Base. Okla.

One man in Wellington said Watts was considered to be “above reproach.”

The incident is the third reported in the Wellington area in the last month.

On March 21, Watts reported sighting such a craft flying at about 50 miles an hour over a road for about eight miles.

On March 23 an Air Force man reported that he was chased along a road by a similar craft for some time.

- - -

This was only the beginning of Watts' story. He had a series of encounters over the following months with events and players that resemble the Barney and Betty Hill story, hypnotic regression by a Budd Hopkins type, Polaroid UFO photography like Ed Walters, and close encounters of the postal and telephonic kind with astronomer Dr. J. Allen Hynek, who said:

Hynek is baffled.

"If this is a hoax, it is a very, very clever one. In fact, it would be such a clever hoax that it would be almost as interesting as what this farmer claims has happened to him."

Thursday, March 23, 2017

Paul Dean is a UFO document researcher from Melbourne, Australia, who uses an evidence-based approach and focuses on "air safety policy, military communications, radar tracking and space object identification to understand the wider UFO matter at a government/military level." There's a wealth of credible information available, but sadly, many people are satisfied with the shallow, sensational, and inaccurate UFO infotainment from television shows and random websites. Below is a guest article from Paul, prompted by my request for the best and most credible literature for newcomers to the UFO topic. Many of his book selections are available to read free online, and when found, links are included. My personal advice however, is whenever possible, get real books, and go to a bookstore to find them.

UFO Books 101: Required Reading by Paul Dean

I have put a list of books together that are what one would call ''required reading." It amazes me how few people have actually read the great, scholarly, foundational works of Ufology. No one will agree in full on a ''best'' books list... But a ''required'' or ''essential'' reading list is a different matter. UFO enthusiasts beware: Don't think that Klass and Menzel, and Condon, don't make the cut. Also, some books make the list not because of voluminous or heavily technical density, but because they are filled with an extraordinary look at the politics of the times. Keyhoe's work is the best example of this.

Whatever ones leanings, there is no way that ''researchers'' can bestow such a title on themselves without having absorbed at least some of these great tomes. There is simply no alternative. Most of these books must be on shelves.

Also, this is not in any order as such. Don't see this is a top-to-bottom list. It ain't.

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Kenneth Arnold was the original credible witness, a straight-shooting, down-to-earth ex-Boy Scout. Jacques Vallee wrote, "I now think of referring to the (flying saucer) problem as 'the Arnold Phenomenon' after that celebrated witness, businessman Kenneth Arnold." (11 April 1963 entry, Forbidden Science Volume I.) However, in the years since, Arnold's role as the herald of the UFO age has been diminished by the overemphasis and promotion of the Roswell crash franchise. His role is important, and there's a lot more to his story.

Shortly after his encounter, Arnold had the first of many other sightings on his flight to Maury Island, a trip that began his informal role as the first civilian UFO investigator. He became interested in Charles Fort's books of phenomena and joined the Fortean Society. Over the years, he came to believe that the objects he'd seen were living creatures, possibly related to what Ezekiel had described in the Book of Revelation. There's a lot more to Kenneth Arnold's story than just his first sighting, but UFO history has largely ignored the story.

Ray Palmer and an Amazing Book

UFO historians have sought to diminish or deny the role of another pioneer, Raymond A. Palmer, who was promoting the reality of extraterrestrials space ships visiting the Earth as early as 1945. Palmer was a science fiction author, but interested in the reality of space travel, Fortean phenomena, Theosophy and all sorts of paranormal topics, so in 1948 he created a non-fiction magazine to discuss them, Fate magazine. Palmer wrote to Kenneth Arnold and persuaded him to tell his story, which became the cover feature for the first issue of Fate. As a result, the two men became life-long friends and worked together, the best-known example being their collaboration on the 1952 book, The Coming of the Saucers.In 1945 Ray Palmer became fascinated with something that's been called the American Bible, "... an amazing book called 'Oahspe' which purports to be a history of the past 79,000 years, both of the earth and of heaven... which ties into a cohesive whole all the legends and folktales of the world, and all the archeological discoveries of the past, and depicts a logical and convincing, and for the most part provable relationship between all the races of mankind for LONGER than science says civilized men existed on the earth, or even cave-men!"(Amazing Stories December 1945)

"Oahspe, A New Bible in the Words of Jehovih and His Angel Embassadors" was published in 1882, by John Ballou Newbrough supposedly written by automatic writing, channeling the word of Ormazd, "the Creator." In The UFO Phenomenon: Fact, Fantasy and Disinformation, John Michael Greer describes it's significance to UFOs and the extraterrestrial hypothesis.

"Like many channeled works, Oahspe defies easy characterization. Written in the style of the King James Bible, it combines Christian imagery with ideas borrowed from many other religions...What sets it apart most strikingly from the religious visions of a previous century, though, is the way it locates its theology in outer space. Its angels and gods live on countless planets... and travel from world to world in Etherean vessels that range from little scout craft to vast mother ships the size of a planet."

Ray Palmer's Mystic Magazine, May, 1954

These vessels are referred to as fire, sun and "star-ships." An example from Oahspe: "Then Osire left this high place and with his host, aboard the etherean ship of fire, sat out toward the earth, at break-neck speed; for such was the disposition of this most determined god."Ray Palmer promoted the text in the pages of his magazines over the years, and went on to publish three versions of it between 1960 and 1972, writing that, "Oahspe is truly a gateway to understanding."

Arnold's Souvenir Card

In 1950 Kenneth Arnold published The Flying Saucer as I Saw It, an the illustrated pamphlet to be sold as a souvenir at his lectures on the topic. He used the same saucer image for a calling card. His daughter, Kim Arnold wrote: “Kenneth Arnold used to give out philosophy cards to the many people he would meet. They were the size of a common business card. The front of the card had the image of the second to the last of the nine flying saucers he saw on June 24, 1947. The back of the card expressed this quote:”

Many people have inquired as to my philosophy – due to my involvement in the phenomenon known as "Flying Saucers.” The following I accept is worth thinking about.

A great man is the unbelieving man; he is without spiritual sight or spiritual hearing; his glory is in understanding his own understanding. It is he who subdues the forest, tames the beasts of the field to service. He goes alone in the dark, unafraid. He follows no man’s course, but, searches for himself; the priests cannot make him believe, nor the angels of heaven; none can subdue his judgment. He says: why permit others even priests, to you think for you? Stand on your own feet – be a man. Through his arm are tyrants and evil kings overthrown. Through him are doctrines and religions sifted to the bottom and the falsehood and evil in them cast aside. Who but the Creator could have created so great a man as the unbeliever?

KENNETH ARNOLD

It's an unusual piece of writing, not what you'd expect out of a man like Arnold. It turns out the language is taken from scripture. It's taken from Ray Palmer's beloved Oahspe.

Oahspe, a New Bible in the Words of Jehovih and His Angel Embassadors, Page 361

26. Nevertheless, the Creator created a great man amongst these; and such is the unbelieving man. He hath neither gold nor silver, nor house nor land; and he is without spiritual sight or spiritual hearing; but his glory is in understanding his own understanding.27. He it is that subdueth the forest, and tameth the beasts of the field to man's service. He goeth alone in the dark, fearing naught. He followeth not the course of any man, but searcheth for himself; the priest cannot make him believe, nor can the angels of heaven; none can subdue his judgment. He beholdeth the glory of the earth and of manhood. He calleth to the multitude, saying: Why permit ye others, even priests, to think for you? Arise, O thou, and be a man! Arise, O thou, and be a woman!28. He inspireth of the earth and for the earth; through his arms are tyrants and evil kings overthrown. Through him are doctrines and religions sifted to the bottom, and the falsehood and evil in them cast aside. Yea, who but Ormazd could have created so great a man as the unbeliever?

We can't know exactly how Arnold came to use the Oahspe text on his calling card, but there can be little doubt that his friend, Ray Palmer, was influential in its genesis.

Update: Kenneth Arnold's story was on the front cover of the 1st issue of FATE Magazine, but I had forgotten what was on the back cover: